222 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
proposition that what is remembered is the re-ditching and
the fresh banking-up of the sides, which has already been
mentioned.
Within my own knowledge this partial re-construction ap-
peared quite old and weathered some twenty years ago. Yet this
re-construction must be not only later than the mounds, but
also later than the lateral spread of the mounds. The re-con-
struction looks as if it might be about 60 years old; but in that
case the construction must have been very many centuries
earlier, or the dates will not fit in.
At High Beach the pillow mounds are used very extensively
by rabbits. But rabbits also burrow in the dry hill slope of
Bagshot Sand, where there is no mound, almost as much as where
there is a mound. The next dry spur of Bagshot Sand to the
north is just as dense a rabbit warren, without any mounds,
as is the mound area itself. The latter would certainly be a
rabbit warren if destitute of mounds.
On the other hand, so high an authority as Pitt-Rivers held
the opinion that these pillow mounds were artificial rabbit
warrens of comparatively modern construction, and that it was
waste of time to excavate them. Country people on Dartmoor
and elsewhere also express the same view.
Mr. Crawford, however, does not think the theory at all
probable. He points out that in most instances the rabbits
do not use them. Presumably the soil or situation is unsuited
to them, and they find their own homes where they like ; the
mounds are unnecessary even where the rabbits do actually use
them, as they thrive just as abundantly where there are no
mounds. If the mounds were intended as rabbit warrens they
represent a vast amount of labour for scarcely any useful
advantage.
A good deal of labour would be entailed in throwing up these
banks. The High Beach group would represent, I should think,
some 4,000 to 5,000 cubic yards. Who would do that work for
the benefit of rabbits, when they live in the natural hillside just
as well without the banks?
Rabbits are certainly fond of prehistoric camps and military
earthworks; but these are higher. The pillow mounds are not
high enough to be really useful. Both classes are, of course,
equally weathered down in proportion, but if you agree with